Why should we use CDN?
How Can CDNs Benefit Websites And Online Platforms?
Although they improve the end-user experience ultimately, Content Distribution Networks’ primary customers are website or platform owners. Let’s have a look at the advantages they provide.
Decreased Load Times and Latency
Geographical location plays a key role in download speed and latency, as the Content Delivery Network network will receive and distribute traffic loads to the closest available servers. In this way, a strong network of CDNs will not only reduce page load times but also increase data transmission. Whether it’s a video streaming, gaming, or e-commerce platform, CDNs can provide faster connections to every visitor.
There are also other methods to ensure fast data transmission. Some CDN providers incorporate machine learning or AI to manage caching servers. Cached content is distributed according to demand so it can be kept readily available to the user. By caching web content closer to the client, CDN providers may further increase the response speed to user requests.
Easily Manage Traffic Peaks
In some sectors like e-commerce, user traffic tends to follow seasonal or periodic peaks. During these times, CDN providers will distribute user requests among available CDN servers to reduce the load. Load balancing prevents crashes and server overloads.
More Secure Encryption
Encryption methods change and evolve over time as their flaws surface through real-world use.Content Delivery Network providers are fast at adopting and applying these new technologies as they emerge. A good Content Delivery Network provider will apply new SSL certificates and encryption methods without impacting the usual operation of their clients. Often, clients won’t even notice the change.
New Data Transmission Technologies
Like the SSL encryption mentioned above, data transmission technologies also change and upgrade over time. For example, Brotli, BBR, and HTTP2 CDN providers will integrate these new technologies into your website, which means you’ll always have access to the latest data transmission updates.
Better Insights About Traffic
CDN providers hand the hard labor in the internet ecosystem. They handle almost half of all the data traffic on the internet. This means that they generate vast amounts of analytics data. This data can be shared with their customers, which gives them actionable insights, and intelligence into their user base. Also the Info analysis they may provide shows everything a developer needs to know to further optimize the website. In-depth reporting ultimately leads to the performance increase, which results in higher user experience and then further reflects on sales and conversion rates.
And to say the least:
CDNs are AGILENot all CDN providers have an AGILE backbone but the ones that do can help companies expand globally. Some Content Delivery Network providers can set-up new POP (point of presence) servers in a matter of days. This means their clients can expand into a new territory quickly without sacrificing user experience and service quality.
CDNs Are Cost-EffectiveWhen considering the services a Content Delivery Network provides, as well as the potential income it will help generate through better user experiences, a CDN service is well worth the investment.
It’s also wise to keep in mind that without these technologies that the Content Delivery Networks provide some platforms wouldn’t even have a chance of competition ins the search engine results.
CDNs Improve SEOWe mentioned that some platforms wouldn’t even have a chance of competing in the search engine results. So how can Content Delivery Networks affect a website’s rank in the search engine results? Well, there are many factors under this topic. Search engines factor in many parameters when ranking a page or a website. They don’t disclose a full list of what they take into account but it’s clear that a page’s speed, data transmission security and the user experience it offers are a big part of the equation. In this regard, almost all we mentioned above contributes to a better result in search engine ranks.
How to Decide If You Need CDN Services?
Not every website needs a CDN provider. There are ways to determine if a website or platform needs to take advantage of CDN services. A CDN can be a great solution for your business, especially if you serve customers or clients all around the world. Here are some examples of businesses that could benefit from a CDN:
E-commerce sites
long waits while they’re browsing your shop or trying to check out with their purchases. If you want a smooth and seamless user experience for your customers, even during times with heavy traffic, a CDN can be a great option. Not only does the CDN ensure faster loading time, but it also helps provide security and robustness for the site by helping avoid DDoS kinds of attacks helping avoid huge loads on main servers. Thereby, it helps to protect your main server from getting overloaded.
Financial institutions
Banks, credit unions and other finance companies can use a CDN to create a secure, reliable and fast way to transmit sensitive financial information. By helping insure against DDoS attacks, and server overload; it helps financial services companies provide reliable uptime and performance to its users. Security is the critical lifeblood of financial companies and a reliable CDN service will go a long way in ensuring that.
Media or news sites
Media and news sites are often content-heavy, and they include a lot of interactive elements to maximize user dwell time, and they tend to be dynamically updated with the latest news. CDNs can help to ensure that the content delivery remains fast and highly responsive, to bring the news to your users in real-time.
Government
Government websites also tend to be very content-heavy as they cater to a variety of citizen needs. CDNs can help government agencies provide much faster services to citizens.
Mobile apps
A CDN accelerates the load time for mobile applications and increases page responsiveness.
SaaS
CDN will help SaaS-based businesses scale easily and serve millions of web users, without causing a dip in the performance from the added user base.